RACHEL MADDOW: Ron Paul Has Lost The FOX News Primary

Rachel Maddow again devoted some significant time last night to the disconnect between the coverage Ron Paul gets in the media (in this case, specifically on Fox News) vs. his consistently strong poll numbers (in this case Iowa, where the latest PPP poll numbers put him in the lead, though worth Maddow later joins the chorus of people noting that Iowa actually isn't that important).

Says Maddow:

"It's possible to be the front-runner in Iowa without winning the Murdoch primary. Without getting Fox News on your side. To spend a little time trolling through Fox News channel news scripts on lexusnexus searching for the words Ron Paul shows what it means in 2011 to lose the Fox/Murdoch primary...If Fox News channel is talking smack about a particular republican candidate, the candidate they're likely talking smack about is Ron Paul."

Maddow attributes the tone of the coverage to the fact Ron Paul raises some uncomfortable truths about the contradictory state of the Republican party.

What's most interesting about Ron Paul is the extent to which his domestic stuff, his social issue libertarianism, his position on things like not just the war in Iraq but the war on drugs, calls out a really uncomfortable truth in modern republican politics which is Republicans want their brand to be small hands-off government. but the policies they support are more like big intrusive government.